Countywide : Women’s Issues Are Focus of New Group

Several women’s organizations in Thousand Oaks have joined together to focus on women’s issues in state and local elections this year, a representative of one of the groups said Tuesday.

The Women in Action Coalition, formed earlier this month, will explain candidates’ positions on issues such as abortion, health care, affordable child care and sexual harassment, said Colleen Briner-Schmidt, president of the local chapter of the American Assn. of University Women.

“We need to pick people who care about these issues,” Briner-Schmidt said. The alliance also is helping to register voters.

Other groups in the coalition are local chapters of the League of Women Voters and the National Women’s Political Caucus. The organizations in the alliance represent about 2,000 women in the area, Briner-Schmidt said.

“What’s exciting is that these are women who really make things happen in the Conejo Valley,” she said.

The coalition will not endorse candidates because of its status as a nonprofit organization, she said. But it will circulate information about candidates’ positions on several issues and will encourage its members to participate in campaigns.

“Our goal is to get people involved in this election, not sit back and wring our hands and say, ‘Oh, gee, I don’t like who is out there,’ ” she said.

Briner-Schmidt said she decided to get involved in political campaigns this year after watching the cross-examination of Anita Hill during the confirmation hearing of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.